A big Cheers to all concerned for V. Unfortunately heading down to Engerlund for xmas so won`t be able to play with it for at least the next 5 days... :sadbanana
On (very) brief first impressions... (I`ve got a lot of packing/organising to do
) -
The sound engine looks more promising. Yeah, there`s definitely some bad sounds happening in there, but at least we have more layers now, so that`ll advance as more sounds are mapped to various virtual mechanical parts/functions. I`ve worked on sfx/music projects with loads of coders before so I know synthesised sounds are a total bitch to implement in games even tho they can be a lot more accurate and descriptive for the purpose. They just take a horrendous amount of time and sweat to make them both generally acceptable and totally useable. (for anyone that just generally bitches about the current sound situation, you don`t have a clue. It means the devs are utterly dedicated to getting the most realistic driving experience possible, including a totally realistic audio response from each major audible part of the car. Just be patient on the sfx front
)
The FO8 and BF1 seem to grip less at the rear. I aint got enough time to look into it much, but on the tracks I usually run them on, they don`t immediately seem to handle as well at all. I noticed the new steering controls in the garage setup screen (lock values for the car, and your own current wheel values), and I know the main control options, etc have changed somewhat, as well as the increased steps in the FFB (it does feel different and seems to be more alive/responsive with less apparently noticeable FFB lag) so it may just be that.
The inclusion of the scripting in the release patch is great. I added two tiny lines in the MRT, FOX, FO8, and BF1 scripts, and now I only need to twist my G25`s H>Seq knob to transit between the two control modes, whereas before I had to fiddle about reassigning buttons 8 and 9 every time I wanted to change modes. Glad to see the BF1 has a default auto clutch as it would lose so much time flooring the pedal for every gear change, whereas the FO8, FOX and MRT stay with the manual clutch
I also use a ton of mods, mainly gfx (both released, and my own) and they`ve all integrated fine with the V patch. Car Horn mods didn`t work immediately as they were raw files and stored in a different named folder, but it was less than 10 seconds work to convert them to signed 16-bit mono wavs, and dump them all in the new "sound" folder.
All in all. A good patch. Many immediately useable improvements, very minor incompatability problems (the "snd" > "sound" dir, that was my only noticeable problem and my install is seriously modded). There are no noticeable gfx updates, as the community has been providing many of them so they aren`t essential atm, so most dev time seems to have gone into an updated sound engine, and useable gameplay/bugfix updates. All in all, it`s still looking to be the single most realistic driving game available on any platform.
Hey, it`s christmas, and even tho I`d usually say "Bah, bloody humbug" I`ll give the guys an honest 10/10 overall. It`s useful, relevant, and as compatible with the existing game structure as you could ask for. Devs, and (un)official beta testers... Have an extra deep filled mince pie, brandy (or alkyhol of your choice) on me.
I nearly mastered Hendrix's Voodoo Chile Intro on the blackwood rally track.